Following the summer 2022 consultation, the team is continuing to develop its proposals for the Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm.
During the first stage of consultation, which ran for six weeks between 30 June and 12 August 2022, we engaged with over 14,000 stakeholders, held two in-person events and numerous stakeholder briefings. If you missed them, the consultation proposals can still be viewed here.
In response to the consultation, we received 139 individual pieces of feedback. We have carefully reviewed and considered all feedback, and we are using it to help inform the development of the project.
We have now published the Stage 1 Feedback Report, which summarises the issues raised from feedback and our initial responses and consideration.
Key change to our proposals
At the first stage of public consultation, we presented a cable route search area for the proposed underground cable, between landfall and the substation.
Following consideration of technical issues, preliminary environmental assessments, and feedback received from stakeholders and residents, one of those options will no longer be taken forward.
The map below shows the part of the area of search for the underground cable route that was presented at the consultation. The area highlighted in red is the route that will no longer be pursued.
The next stage of the consultation will focus on the underground cable route search area that is marked in blue.
You can find further detail on this within the Stage 1 Feedback Report.
Next steps
Engagement is ongoing with statutory consultees and local authorities. Onshore onsite surveys to collect baseline data in relation to topics such as ecology, archaeology and traffic are continuing as is our design and engineering work. Offshore we continue to progress our offshore environmental impact assessments on matters including marine ecology and shipping and navigation.
We are also working with the proposed neighbouring offshore wind farm North Falls, on key onshore elements such as the route of the corridors for the underground cable, surveys and by sharing consultation feedback.
We are busy planning the next stage of consultation and we anticipate this taking place in early 2023. At this stage, we will present more detailed designs along with initial findings of the Environmental Impact Assessment.
If you have any questions about the project, you can email us at fiveestuaries@rwe.com or call us on 0333 880 5306.